Season 4 has finished, with quite a dramatic conclusion.
There were 3 matches left to play, this was the current table heading into those last few games:
Next up was top placed Manchester City, possible title decider in the making, here are condensed highlights of how that match went:
So we lost, 2-1, it was one of the toughest matches I have ever played, City’s pressing and high tempo football was a real challenge to deal with, the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story though, man of the match was undoubtedly their keeper, Eduardo, some of the saves he pulled off were ridiculous, 3-3 would have probably been a much fairer result, but alas, we lost, our chance to put daylight ahead of us at the top of the Premier league had been wasted, we still have a game in hand over City though, and with league matches against Watford, Newcastle and Arsenal still to come, and with City playing Arsenal and Man utd, it was all still to play for, and of course Chelsea, and even Liverpool and Utd could all still have a say.
A routine win against Watford followed, as did wins for Liverpool and City, Newcastle came and made it a tough first half, but ultimately our quality proved out and we picked up a comfortable 2-0 win, with City only managing a draw against Arsenal.
We headed into the final game of the season, this was the situation:
2 points clear at the top, 1 game left to play, City having a slightly better GD, we win and we are Champions, a draw could even be enough if City only drew, or lost, but if they won, they would take the title on GD.
So, to the final day of the season, Arsenal at Selhurst park, all to play for, entering unchartered territory for the club, having never won a top flight league title before, nerves were shredded, tensions high, a buzz filling the stadium, we could NOT slip up here…..
Final whistle bellows, City have been held at old Trafford to a 0-0 draw, we are CHAMPIONS!!!!
Crystal palace, Premier League title winners 2022/23, and Champions league football next season.
Quite an extraordinary season from start to finish.
Max Gomez up front has been a revelation for us this season, signed last pre-season as a direct replacement for prolific 20+ goals-a-season Milovojevic, he has more than lived up to the challenge, finishing the league top scorer with an incredible 31 goals, 1 shy of the all time record.
Brewster, signed from Liverpool for £40mil, also came of age and bagged an equally impressive 25 goals, Adama Traoré, who started slowly, also came into his own second half of the season, chipping in with some vital goals, as did Moses Simon on the other flank.
With Nicolas Pepe from Arsenal, and Vinagre from Wolves set to join in the summer, as well as a few other transfers lined up, next season will be a big push to do well in the UEFA Champions League, really looking forward to playing those atmospheric mid-week matches under the lights, with THAT anthem ringing out.
Obviously the board were delighted with my performance, finishing the season with a 94 Trust rating level, a stark contrast from the 46 rating that saw me narrowly cling to my job this time last season.
My performance didn’t go unnoticed either, as Bayern Munich approached me and said how impressed they were with what I’d achieved at Palace and wanted me to take charge at the Munich Arena, however, I politely declined, I intend to finish this chapter of history with Palace and guide the club through their first ever European adventure before thinking of moving on.
Easily the best, most realistic, enjoyable, intense and rewarding season of pixelated footy I’ve ever experienced in a game, well worth the $2 (£1.67) per month for the FIFER Realism Mods.
As a nod to the carers, doctors, nurses, and everyone at the NHS doing such essential, and caring work in these intrepid times, the club have forgone signing a new sponsorship deal this year and instead chose to adorn next seasons new kits with the NHS logo.
New updated stadium adboards mods and new match ball mod created, I’m raring to get season 5 underway, until next week, stay safe.
Paul – Congratulations mate. Bet that last game was nerve wracking!!
Ended a 11 game run without a win last night, have dropped down to 18th. Nervous times ahead.
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Cheers Lloyd – My arse was doing the 50p/5p witch in that Arsenal game alright!!
I will try and get Chirivella’s stats at 26yrs old posted up for you later, played him at AMF role in the pre-season friendlies, scored on his debut, looking like a solid free transfer!
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Paul – you gave away the Man City game result with the video title, but other than that spoiler, this post rewards careful scrolling for readers to follow the story as it develops.
I played Southamption and Man City back-to-back last night. In a certain other game Southamptin would have been the nightmare opponents and Man City pretty easy, but I saw Southampton off reasonably comfortably (still had to graft for it) – then I had a match vs an insane Man City that I’m lucky didn’t give me nightmares. ‘Lucky to get nil’ indeed.
Congrats on the title and surely there are still worlds to conquer with Palace – not just Europe, but World Class? I’m still on Professional too and it might be (modded of course) the most perfectly balanced difficulty level I’ve played on any footy game, not even a thought of stepping up for me yet, but I think a title might prompt me.
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NG – In hindsight I should have chosen a different post title to keep people guessing but it was nearly 2am this morning, i just wanted to get it wrapped up.
Man City are always formidable opponents in my CM, along with Liverpool and Arsenal, no coincidence that they are the only 3 EPL teams who’s tactics, and player emotions etc are ‘locked down’ by EA, you cannot edit them in Frosty or with mods, kits etc yeah, but not the raw underlying play styles.
City press so hard, like Liverpool of 2 seasons ago before they matured, you literally get zero time on the ball, forced into erors, then they pounce with their pacey forwards, nightmare, I only lost 2-1, and their GK pulled off about 5 dead-cert goal saves, but it was exhausting.
Was going to save it for next weeks post, I still will, but since winning the EPL, I have indeed moved up to World Class, was taking part in a pre-season tournament against several teams of mixed abilities so was a good testing bed, all I’ll say for now is if you thought professional was good, thenyou have the joys of WC to look forward to 🙂
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Paul – occasionally on Professional I’ll finf the AI defence parting like the Red Sea to provide gaps for my grateful forwards to get through, so it definitely is a ‘lower’ difficulty level (although those moments are rare enough that it’s still wonderfully balanced overall).
I’ve been doing pretty well against the lower 14 teams of the league, but the Man City was the game that showed me I’ll never really compete in the top 6 without the players to do it. My poor full-backs…
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NG – The season just gone, the title winning season, I was finding the top 6 teams provided a real good challenge n professional, always tight edgy games, and the odd lesser team would pull out a performance now and then too, but i’d gotten to the point where I was beating teams by 4,5 and 6 goals too regularly, I had a 9-0, and a 6-1 last season too.
It was time to move up to World Class, as a slight spoiler ahead of next week’s post, I will just say that my season, season 5, on WC, has started well.
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